Hormone balance and sleep -
Published By Padmini Santosh, M. From monthly cycles to different stages in life, hormones can play a role in the amount and quality of sleep women get.
Padmini Santosh looks at how to navigate and get the best sleep possible. Sleep is a universal need for all life forms, including humans. In fact, we spend about one third of our lives asleep. The long-term absence of adequate sleep can result in serious physiological consequences.
Lack of sleep can affect the ability to regulate stress hormones, lead to high blood pressure, and increase the risk of obesity, type two diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. As women go through life, we learn that hormones are the culprit for most of the physical and emotional changes we experience, both during monthly cycles and through different life stages.
Hormones are chemical messengers that travel through our bodies affecting growth and development, metabolism, sexual function, reproduction, mood, and appetite — and sleep is no exception. The amount of sleep humans require decreases with age.
Newborns sleep about 16 to 18 hours per day, but by adolescence, sleep decreases to about 9 to 10 hours per night. Most adults only require hours of sleep, but older adults require even less and tend to go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier.
As age progresses, there is also a decline in the efficiency and quality of sleep. But there are differences in the way men and women experience sleep.
Research suggests that women have longer total sleep time, less total wake time, and overall better sleep efficiency than men. These differences begin during puberty.
Have you ever noticed that it can be more difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep around the same time of your monthly cycle? Estrogen controls the phases of the menstrual cycle, while progesterone helps maintain pregnancy.
Progesterone is known as the relaxing hormone, and it has a mildly sedative effect. Women may report feeling drowsier during this phase. After ovulation, estrogen and progesterone levels peak, and sleep may come more easily.
However, just before a period starts, during the luteal phase, progesterone levels drop dramatically. Remember that these monthly hormonal fluctuations are completely normal. What we consume, and the devices we use each day, and the stresses of life have more of an effect on our sleep than hormones.
Keep reading for tips on things we can control when it comes to our sleep habits to help overcome these normal and minor hormonal influences. This is why women often feel very drowsy and nap frequently during their first trimester.
This is normal! Pregnant women are supposed to sleep more, especially in this early stage of pregnancy. These hormones even out by the third trimester; however, other symptoms can interfere with sleep as a woman nears the end of her pregnancy.
Pressure on the bladder can cause frequent trips to the bathroom through the night, and circulation issues can also disrupt the ability to fall or stay asleep.
Another phase of life when dramatic hormone fluctuation can affect sleep is the period of time leading up to and during menopause. Estrogen and progesterone decrease during this phase, which can lead to irritability. Hormonal changes also lead to vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats that can interfere with sleep.
There are three types of estrogen: estradiol prevalent in childbearing women, estriol the estrogen produced during pregnancy , and estrone the estrogen produced after menopause. Here are some major ways:. Most girls begin menstruating between the ages of 10 and 15, launching a life-long cycle of hormonal fluctuations that can affect sleep.
In fact, research shows that not until puberty do sleep differences between boys and girls appear. If there is no pregnancy, progesterone levels decrease dramatically, causing the uterine lining to shed and starting the menstrual cycle.
After menses, progesterone levels will slowly rise again, allowing sweet dreams to come more easily. Women with polycystic ovary syndrome PCOS can have irregular periods, higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of progesterone.
These irregularities in hormones can exacerbate sleep difficulties. Additionally, studies show that women with PCOS have a higher risk of developing sleep apnea—a sleep disorder that causes a person to stop breathing for brief periods throughout the night.
Also, wind down a bit earlier to give yourself a bit more time to rest, and avoid nicotine and caffeine. The nine months of pregnancy can be a quagmire of wayward hormones, as both progesterone and estrogen swirl through your body to support the growing fetus.
This is the hormone that everyone thinks of when they think about sleep. Melatonin is an amazing hormone in your body that is connected to the time of day. As it becomes darker, more and more melatonin begins to be released in the brain telling your body it will soon be time to sleep.
Then throughout the night, melatonin levels peak and then begin to dip as it becomes morning, helping you to wake up. Melatonin is commonly used as a supplement to help people sleep. Louis Buenaver. If it is working for you, keep reading anyway! Supplementation can be a very good thing, but be advised — many products, including melatonin supplements, are not regulated and can be harmful.
There are a lot of different functions that cortisol performs, but for right now we are just going to focus on its role as it relates to sleep. When it comes time to hit the sack, cortisol levels in your body dip.
Then, they slowly increase throughout the night helping to wake you up in the morning. You can sort of think of cortisol as having an inverse relationship with melatonin as it pertains to sleep. As melatonin levels decrease, cortisol levels begin to increase which contributes to helping you wake up in the morning.
As melatonin levels rise at night, cortisol levels should dip. When cortisol levels are out of whack, it can cause sleep to suffer, creating a vicious cycle. We know, it sounds like cortisol is terrible.
You may even wonder why we produce it in the first place! Well, cortisol does have very practical functions in the body which is why we produce it naturally. In fact, we need cortisol for survival! It helps to regulate blood pressure, manage how the body uses macronutrients, boost energy, and more.
It also is a very important hormone in our fight or flight response. chronic stress , and it can have a direct effect on our sleep.
Too much cortisol raises heart rate and body temperature which can make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep, creating a vicious cycle of poor sleep, and imbalanced hormones. Since all hormones are connected, this lack of sleep can in turn cause your other hormones to become imbalanced!
Hormones such as progesterone and estrogen become imbalanced when we are constantly producing cortisol, contributing to sleep issues, raising cortisol levels even higher. However, when we are over-producing cortisol, our bodies steal progesterone to make more cortisol to keep up with the demand, and to protect us.
Unfortunately, when progesterone is drained, it creates an imbalance between progesterone and estrogen known as estrogen dominance. And since estrogen is stimulatory in nature, when it is dominant, it creates even deeper issues with your sleep quality. If you find yourself caught in this cycle, you may notice that you are less productive throughout the day at work.
Or maybe you find that you are lacking motivation to do certain things that you used to be able to do, such as go for a walk or complete a project at home.
This can have a very harmful effect on daily life as your waistline which you may be experiencing firsthand! Not surprisingly, sleep problems and hormonal imbalances are especially common among women going through menopause.
Because of estrogen decline, the body experiences hot flashes and sweating, which is the most common reason why women going through menopause have trouble sleeping or why they suddenly wake up in the middle of the night. Progesterone and melatonin levels also decrease with age, which is another reason many women can experience trouble sleeping!
This all sounds like doom and gloom for women going through this life stage or experiencing these hormonal imbalances.
Ana Reisdorf, a year-old registered dietitian for Wellness Verge Recovery nutrition, was Diabetic foot creams a balanc good sleeper, other than the occasional restless night techniques for controlling blood glucose drinking ballance much. But a few years ago, Hormone balance and sleep suddenly began waking balanfe at 3 a. for no reason. The problem is stress, she thought. Throughoutshe tried to balance her cortisol levels by taking adaptogensmagnesium, and CBD, as well as managing her stress and reducing her workout intensity. A colleague eventually referred Reisdorf to a local physician who deals with women's hormones. She began taking prescription progesterone in July and has since noticed that her sleep is significantly better. Are imbalanced hormones keeping you up seep night? If Broccoli and potatoes recipes, the reason may surprise you. We Holistic weight solutions know that s wnd plays a crucial role bapance our overall Hkrmone and sense of wellbeing. Amd, few people actually get enough of it or at a sufficient quality. Inadequate rest does more than just make you feel tired and unable to perform daily tasks successfully — it also negatively affects your hormones. Read on to learn why quality sleep matters so much for your hormonal health and what you can do to help your body get the shut-eye it needs to function properly and help you feel your best.
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